I Will Find You
by darkbloodylegs
Summary: Yuki is annoyed when he has to brave a terrible storm to find his stranded nemesis, Kyo. However things quickly take a turn for the worse and soon cat and rat have to support each other on the way to safety.
1. Chapter 1

Springtime in Japan was particularly pleasant that year. Yellow crocuses bloomed alongside the walls of Shigure's home, encouraged along by Yuki's green thumb, and he couldn't help but feel pleased every time he caught a glimpse of Honda-san's face at the sight of them. Even Shigure was more active, lured out of his nocturnal lifestyle by gentle breezes and soft sunlight.

Still, every season has its rain showers and this Spring was no exception; Yuki had woken up to gray skies and the occasional surprising _plip _falling at unexpected moments, on a forearm or directly on his eyeball. By the time he'd assisted Honda-san in rescuing the hanging laundry they were caught in a full downpour.

"Honda-san, have you finished your homework yet?" Yuki asked the girl, glancing up from his own assignments spread across the kitchen table to see her standing at the sink, a small pile of vegetables soaking in a tub of iced water. He knew how she struggled in her classes and, as the new term was fast approaching, was prepared to offer his assistance.

"Nearly," she replied with a smile, tucking a flyaway strand of brown hair underneath her yellow bandana to keep it out of the way. She picked up a zucchini and glanced at it critically for a moment before expertly sliding a knife up the side, shaving off a perfect curl of peel. "Shigure-san was so kind to help me with my essay assignment this year. He was really very helpful."

"Imagine that," Yuki replied dryly. "What was the topic—the 'sexual awakening of the teenage virgin'?" He wished he hadn't said it the moment the words left his mouth; Tohru's face flamed crimson and she almost dropped her knife.

"N—no!" she stammered. He could practically envision steam billowing out of her ears. "Heaven forbid…"

"I'm teasing," he said, afraid she'd accidentally cut herself if her hands flailed any more. "Calm down, Miss Honda." To distract her, he asked, "And your other assignments?"

"Well," she said, cheeks still stained a deep red as she resumed her zucchini peeling, "I did most of the math assignment myself. But some of the problems were confusing, and I wondered if Sohma-kun may be willing to look over them for me?"

"Sure," he said, smiling back at her. She was just so likable, always quietly busy and content. He'd never met anyone quite so earnest before, and was grateful for her friendship. "What are you making?"

"Well," she replied, pointing with her knife to a handwritten recipe pinned to the corkboard Shigure had set up in the kitchen, "there's a bit of a nip in the air today because of all the rain, and you brought in all these vegetables; I thought I'd make vegetable and rice stew for supper. What do you think?"

"Sounds amazing," Yuki said with sincerity. If Tohru made it, it was bound to be superb. "Make sure to include plenty of leeks for the stupid cat."

"Well," Tohru chuckled, "maybe a few. If he doesn't know they're in there, it should be fine. And they're really very good for you; I'd hate to waste them. Where is Kyo-kun anyway? I haven't seen him all day."

Yuki shrugged. "Probably too tired to get out of bed. You know how he gets when it rains; lazy."

"That's probably it," Tohru mused, setting the second naked zucchini aside and turning her attention on a large potato. "Say, doesn't he have training with Shishou-san on Sundays? Maybe we should wake him up… he'd probably be angry if we let him miss it because of the rain."

"I'll do it," Yuki volunteered, happy to abandon his homework and annoy his nemesis. He was already formulating possibilities—how best to get under the cat's skin? Of course an unnecessarily obnoxious wake-up call would be the first step, and then a completely nonchalant reaction to his rage.

He walked up the stairs to Shigure's old office barely concealing his wicked smirk. He curled his hand lovingly around the door's handle and braced his shoulders, waiting to pounce…

_Bang_! He threw the door open so fast that it slammed into the opposite wall and made the house rattle.

"Boys, don't break my house!" he heard Shigure call from the direction of his bedroom. He ignored his older cousin and looked around.

Kyo's room was always surprisingly neat, at least compared to Yuki's own. Kyo didn't seem to have a lot of belongings, and what he did have was stacked and put into drawers. The bed was always made.

It was made _now_, which seemed very odd. There was no nest of orange bedhead on the pillow, at least. Kyo was nowhere in sight.

"Hey, stupid cat!" he called in the direction of the upstairs bathroom. "Where are you?"

No answer.

Honda-san's anxious face peeped up the stairs. "He isn't home?" she asked, surprised. "Well he wouldn't be on top of the house in _this _weather, would he?"

As if to emphasize her question, the rain poured with more vigor than ever, thundering like rocks against the roof.

Shigure propped open the door to his room, the ink smudge on his jaw a testament to how lost in his current—no doubt perverse—novel. He probably wanted to get it finished before his deadline so he could pretend to not work on it at all when his poor tortured editor made a visit. "Kyo's not home?" he asked. "I didn't hear him leave… you don't think he went out to do his normal morning exercises and got trapped in the storm, do you?"

Yuki could have smacked his sly relative. It was as if that statement were perfectly calculated to send Tohru into hysterics.

"Oh no, this is terrible!" she moaned, clutching the sides of her face and dithering anxiously on the spot. "No doubt that's what happened! Oh, he's probably stuck somewhere unable to move at all! He could be anywhere! He could…"

Yuki didn't often like to use his… _charm _on other people, and especially not Tohru. It felt dishonest somehow, and definitely made him feel sleazy. It was exactly the sort of thing his brother did to get his way. But he supposed, in moderation, a little dazzling could be forgiven.

"Miss Honda," he breathed, lidding his gray-violet eyes and peering down at her from between long smoky lashes. He rested a hand on her shoulder and used the other to turn her face up to his. She stopped mid-word and her brown eyes went blank, a light flush rising on her cheeks. "It's alright; no need to worry. Why don't I just go out and look for him, hmm?" he let his fingers play down her neck slightly and her blush increased from pale pink to red.

"Ah… ok," she agreed. "If you're sure… Do you want me to come with you?"

"No, but thank you for the offer," he leaned closer, praying she'd stay still- if her chest bumped his she'd have a much smaller and squeakier Yuki to deal with. "You are most kind… _princess_."

"Jeez, Yuki," Shigure complained as he left the melted puddle of Tohru to compose herself and made his way down the hallway. "Try not to use your powers for evil, or I'll die of jealousy."

Yuki ignored him and slipped back downstairs, grabbing his raincoat and his umbrella along the way. Of course the moment he stepped outside he realized the futility of such an action; rain pelted at him from every angle at such a speed that it stung upon hitting his skin. He was bone-soaked within moments and, with a growl, he abandoned the umbrella underneath the garden fence, hoping the strong winds wouldn't whip it away.

"Where are you, stupid cat?" he grumbled to himself.


	2. Chapter 2

Kyo wasn't behind the house; his weights were neatly assembled in their plastic box like always. But Yuki did find a few footprints in the mud, disappearing quickly as the hard, pelting rain wore at the ground, making it slicker and slipperier. He followed them as far as they lead, a few feet down the dusty—now _muddy_—road, but soon they disappeared into nothingness. At least they were headed away from the woods and seemed to be pointing towards town.

Kyo had two morning workout routes. Both began with stretching and weights, and concluded with a run. Option one was a brief run through the woods, more effective for its resistance—clambering up and down hills and in between trees—than for its distance. The second lead into town, past their school, and back around on a loop, and was about eleven miles total.

Eleven miles felt more like a thousand that day. Each step felt like a strain, like forcing his body through molasses. The wind and rain pelted so hard against his body that Yuki lost his balance several times, and the mud squishing and sliding underneath his feet certainly hadn't been any help. He considered hunching underneath his slicker and using his cell phone to ring Hatori, his only relative with a car, for assistance, but didn't want to wait for the family doctor to travel all the way from the main house. He would never admit it, even to himself, but Yuki felt a little worried about his cousin.

The rain let up slightly when he'd almost reached the school grounds, and Yuki could have wept with relief. The strain was actually quite hard on his body, and he'd felt the first flutter of a very familiar sensation in his throat and in his chest. The sensation was tied hand in hand with dread—he knew very well what it could lead to—an attack of his weak bronchial tubes. He didn't fancy suffocating to death in a rainstorm just yet, thanks very much.

With not so much rain pouring into his eyes, Yuki was more able to look around at his surroundings as he pulled his ruined shoes, step by step, out of the never-ending mud pile that was once a road. The damage was incredible; fences were toppled and farming areas were positively flooded. He groaned in dread thinking about his _own _garden.

"Help!" a weak voice called when he was mere blocks from school. "Please, help me…"

His ears perked up at the call, and he glanced around.

An old man was trapped in his garden, heavily entangled in clothesline and partially buried under a sucking pile of mud. Yuki rushed to his side and began scooping the gloppy puddles aside, away from hisface.

"Oh, thank you, young man," he said in gratitude as he slid his arms underneath his shoulders and heaved him into a sitting position, using his sharp fingernails to cut the clothesline away from wrinkled skin. "I thought for sure I was going to drown."

He helped him to him feet and walked him to the door. "Can I offer you anything, son?" the grandfatherly man asked. "Some tea? I have a little cake…"

"No, thank you," he replied, trying to shake the dark earth from his hands. "I'm looking for someone. Have you seen a boy around today? He's about my age, with very orange hair. He's gone missing, and…"

He was shaking her head. "I'm afraid I haven't seen anybody all day but you. My wife's gone away for a trip to Hokkaido and I thought it'd be a nice day to do some gardening. You can bet I didn't expect my clothesline to fall down from the wind and trap me!"

He nodded and turned to continue his way up the path, when he commented, "It's funny that you should say 'orange' though. I saw a cat today the most beautiful shade of orange I'd ever seen! Like a sunset."

Yuki felt his insides freeze at the words, and he pivoted slowly to stare at him as she wiped his feet off on the sodden doormat. "A… cat, sir?" he asked, hearing his heart thundering in his ears. If Kyo had weakened into his cat form _before _the rain really started to fall, he couldn't imagine the state of his cousin now.

"Yes, poor thing seemed to be in some distress," the man said. "I can't stand cats myself, terribly allergic, but I would've taken him in if I hadn't already been stuck. He just wandered up the road a ways…" the man pointed, presumably in the direction said distressed cat had travelled, and then Yuki was off as fast as his slender legs could carry him, slipping and sliding in the mud like a rat in grease.

He would have missed him entirely if it hadn't been for the children. A group of kids—two boys and a girl—sat in a huddle around an overworked storm drain. The rain had settled into a light drizzle and more and more people were daring to leave their houses; the children had no doubt been bored from being cooped up all day.

"That's _mean,_ Sato!" the little girl, who couldn't possibly be older than five years old, snapped at the boy. "No, stop; you're making him bleed!"

"Aaw, it's fine," Sato snapped. "It's dead anyway. Drowned. Don't you wanna see what's inside it?"

"No!" the girl cried, clapping her hands over his ears. "No, no no. And he's _not _dead, look! He moved!"

"Almost dead, then," the other boy, a husky nine-year-old, grunted. "Come on, do it Sato! I wanna see its guts. Sakura, quit being a baby."

A pitiful meow rang out, so pained and familiar that it stopped Yuki in his tracks.

"Stop!" Sakura screamed, becoming unglued. She threw herself on Sato—who bore such a striking resemblance to her that they _had _to be siblings—and knocked a long, bloody stick from his hands.

Yuki approached the children and looked over their hunched figures; before them, partially blocking the storm drain, lay a cat. It was so entrenched with mud that it was impossible to determine its true fur color, and so plastered to its shivering body that it appeared very small. A long, bleeding cut wound down its belly as if someone had tried to carve it open, and the water around it was quickly becoming a darker and darker pink. It opened fiery eyes and looked up at Yuki.

There was no mistaking those eyes.

The husky boy slapped the girl, hard, in the face and her cries echoed up the street. "_Now _you've done it, Toya!" Sato snarled. "You don't touch my sister." He twisted and punched his friend in the stomach and soon they were rolling around, wrestling like animals in the mud.

Sakura turned horrified eyes on Yuki, who was snapped out of his reverie from the fear he saw there. "_Hey_!" he bellowed, enraged. The children split apart and gaped up at him.

"You little… I just…" the normally calm and stoic Yuki Sohma was at a loss for words. "I ought to find your parents… do you even know…"

He ripped off his slicker and his long-sleeved t-shirt, dropping to his knees by Kyo's side.

"Is this your cat, mister?" Sakura asked.

"Yes!" Yuki roared with such vehemence that the flutter in his chest returned, just for a second, but a little stronger than before. The children cowered back, no doubt recognizing the absolute fury in his face.

He was as careful as he could ever remember being when he slid the animal into his lap, but the wound still stretched open even more, hot blood bubbling to the surface. "Oh, god," he whispered under his breath. "Kyo… come on, you stupid cat."

The fiery orange eyes never once left his face as he tied his shirt over the cats middle, but he felt Kyo's heart thud, more rapid than a hummingbird's, against his skin.

"I'll get you home, we've got this," he said. Kyo was starting to shiver, and so Yuki lifted the hem of his undershirt and pressed the dripping-wet animal to the bare skin of his stomach.

"We're real sorry, mister," Sato said, likely still afraid of having his crimes reported to his parents.

"Yeah," Toya agreed, nodding hastily. "We didn't know it was somebody's pet."

"So you think that makes it ok?" Yuki's voice was quiet, but his eyes flashed until there was something much older than a high school boy staring out at them—something ancient, something reincarnated hundreds upon hundreds of times. Never before had Yuki felt the power of his rat spirit so close to the surface—and it was over _Kyo_, of all things. "You think causing a living creature pain to sate your own curiosity is _acceptable_? Animals have souls. Don't ever forget it."

He left the three wide-eyed children behind without so much as a backwards glance as he hustled—not back to Shigure's house, but to Kazuma's dojo which was much closer.

"Hang in there, stupid cat," he said worriedly.

The flutter rose in his chest as he ran again, pulsing and hard. He wasn't sure how long he himself had.


	3. Chapter 3

"Shishou-san," Yuki wheezed into his cellphone, ducking past houses to avoid being seen. "Please pick up the phone. I'm almost at your dojo; Kyo and I are in pretty bad shape, and…"

There was no answer, and soon the dojo's voicemail began making little beeps, signaling the end of the call. Yuki snapped his phone closed and growled in frustration. "Dammit," he snarled, and then coughed, deeply and loudly, feeling his lungs rattle in his chest.

Kyo let out a little alarmed yowl—even hurt as he was, he recognized that cough. Claws extended smoothly from padded toes, pressing to Yuki's abdomen warningly.

"Stop that, stu—" Yuki began, but was interrupted by more coughing. "So much trouble," he gasped for air. He felt as if his throat had been stung by hundreds of bees, swelling the tissue and blocking his breath. He heaved for oxygen, falling to his knees.

Kyo yowled again, wriggling madly. "Damnit," he spat, tearing his way through the thin cotton of Yuki's undershirt just as the boy collapsed to his side. He swatted harshly at Yuki's face with heavy paws, wincing as every blow irritated his still-bleeding cut. "_Yu-ki-get-up,_" he hissed and spat between meows and grunts. "_Don't-you-dare-_"

There was a pop and a flooding of periwinkle smoke, and then Yuki found himself gazing up at an enraged—and exhausted—Kyo through much smaller eyes.

Kyo's stream of profanity then would make Tohru blush. It was actually kind of humorous, Yuki thought, such foul language from such a cute cat.

Kyo lowered his jaws like an arcade game's claw. Yuki's brain, starved for oxygen as it was, still felt an instinctual fear; no rat wanted to be inside a cat's mouth. But Kyo was surprisingly gentle and mindful of his pointed teeth as he carried the tiny creature.

And Kyo ran, as only a cat can, slinky and smooth, practically a shadow over grass. But perhaps not quite as smooth as normal, as he still carried with him a heavy limp. If he noticed the shining trail of blood he left behind him with every step, he made no sign of it.

Running uphill was torturous, and Yuki, passing in and out of consciousness, heard his cousin's small whines and whimpers at the back of his throat. Kyo's pace was slowing despite his best efforts. He stumbled and fell, with a bone jarring impact on the ground, keeping his jaws firmly around Yuki even as he did so to avoid losing the other boy. He tried to stand, shook heavily, and fell back again.

"So close to the dojo," he moaned, dropping his cousin down to rest on his soft forepaws. "Really thought we'd make it. Still alive, damn rat?"

Yuki couldn't speak. He saw shimmering waves of deepest violet at the corners of his eyes, constricting, _blinding _him. The worst part of his attacks was the _pressure _being unable to breathe caused, like giant hands squeezing his skull.

If a cat could scowl, Kyo certainly was. His body was shivering violently now, chilled to the bone from rainwater and blood loss. He felt barely in control of his motor skills, but some feline instinct caused him to run a sharp, rasping tongue up the rat's furred chest. He repeated the action. In his mind's eye, he envisioned cats with newborn kittens, stimulating the respiratory system with heat and motion.

_Lick. Lick._

Yuki let out a pained squeak and, encouraged, Kyo licked faster, flipping the rodent over to run long stripes up his back. Yuki squeaked louder, then gave a prolonged squeal. Finally,

"Stop it, Kyo! That hurts!"

If he could speak, he could breathe. Kyo flopped his head to the side, relieved.

_Just a little nap, _he reasoned. _I'm so tired, and so cold._

"Kyo, Kyo, _Kyo_, please…" Yuki pushed at the cat's face with tiny paws, caught in a forest of tickly white whiskers. "Wake up and I'll buy you all the salmon in the world. I'll never plant another leak. I'll let you beat me in any fight you want!"

No response. Yuki wanted to scream. "You don't just get to save my life and then _die_, stupid cat!" he insisted, sinking bucked incisors into Kyo's fleshy little nose.

No response.

"Dammit!" he switched tactics. "Tohru will never love you! You'll be locked in the cat's room forever! You're an ugly, useless monster!"

Nothing!

A rustle in the bushes nearby caused Yuki to startle. He realized his position now; a tiny, half-dead rat in a completely unknown location. He scurried, burying himself against Kyo's motionless chest.

_Whump… whump….._

Well at least his heart was still beating, albeit faintly.

A face appeared above him; long, fluffy gray fur and large yellow eyes. Black stripes crisscrossed across her muzzle, giving her a slightly more feral appearance than the pink ribbon around her neck warranted.

The Persian cat patted at his hiding place, scooping him away from Kyo with soft pink paw pads.

"Kyo-cat not moving," she said, distressed. "Why Kyo-cat hurt? Sophie-cat don't like. Damn rat hurt Kyo-cat?" she worried at the blood still staining Kyo's belly-fur.

_Oh great. A cat-spirit fangirl._

"No, Miss Sophie," Yuki protested from her paws. "I want to save, er, _Kyo-cat_."

Was he imagining it, or did Kyo give a little, disgusted twitch at the name?

Sophie inched her squashed pink nose down and sniffed Yuki suspiciously.

"Damn rat covered in Kyo-cat kisses," she remarked, surprised. "Kyo-cat shares kisses with none, not-a-once."

Yuki squirmed uncomfortably at the thought of Kyo's "kisses" all over his body. But…

"Exactly! We're friends… _family_! Please, you have to get help. He's dying…"

Sophie squatted on the ground and inclined one droopy ear towards him. It took Yuki a moment to understand, but he quickly scrabbled atop her head, clutching two paws full of her long fur for balance as he perched between her ears.

"Sophie-cat take Damn Rat to daddy for help," Sophie said. "Girls watch Kyo-cat for safe."

_Girls? _Yuki twisted around to see two more cats emerging from the rosebush, a Russian blue mix and a short-haired tabby standing over Kyo's limp body like warriors. As he watched, the tabby pressed her lanky body to his side, sharing her warmth.

Sophie scampered off then without a second's warning, with Yuki holding on for dear life, wondering who exactly "daddy" was.


	4. Chapter 4

The cat who called herself Sophie really seemed to know where she was going. Yuki found it too difficult to stay on top of her head as she bounded over tall grass with legs much shorter than Kyo's, so he slid down her neck and slipped himself under her ribbon like a car's safety belt. She was very warm against his sore body; though Kyo had freed up his airways so he could breathe again, Yuki was far from feeling his best.

Sophie was suddenly vertical and Yuki squeaked in alarm as she shot up a tree faster than her chubby frame should have allowed. He pressed himself hard between her shoulders and prayed he wouldn't fall as, with a leap, Sophie threw herself at the partially open window of a two-story building. She tottered alarmingly on the frame until, with her claws buried in the inner wall, she managed to pull her weight through.

They landed with a jolt on a smooth wooden floor, her paws skidding as she worked to find some traction.

"Miss Sophie," Yuki asked politely as she managed to get her bearings. "Where are we?"

"Home," she said simply, and padded over to a pink ceramic dish of water with an elaborately curled silver 'S' on the front. "Damn Rat thirsty?"

"That's not my name, you know," Yuki pointed out, slipping off her back to take a refreshing sip.

"It's what Kyo-cat says," Sophie replied reasonably as she lapped up a few drops herself.

"Well that's unsurprising," Yuki sighed; privately wondering just how much time Kyo spent discussing his life with felines. "No, Sophie, my name is just Yuki."

"Just Yuki," she replied contentedly, and could not be persuaded otherwise.

A door opened and closed, and the familiar sound of a person stripping off his shoes and loosening his tie filled the empty wooden room.

"Boy, it's raining cats and dogs out there!" a very recognizable voice called. "And speaking of cats, where is my Sophie-girl?"

The pudgy Persian cat, with a light mew, made to move towards the voice. Hurriedly, Yuki grabbed on to the end of her bushy gray tail.

"Oh, Sophie," Kazuma scolded. "You're all muddy! Have you been outside in this bad weather? Daddy wants his Sophie-girl to be safe!"

He bent down and lifted her up in his arms, away from his clothes. "Somebody needs a bath!"

"Excuse me," Yuki spoke up, feeling slightly sick from the swaying of Sophie's tail. "Shishou-san?"

Kazuma nearly dropped his cat; she let out a choked, grumpy sound and he corrected his grip. "Good Lord!" he yelped. "Who said that?"

"Um it's me, Yuki," the rat said, using pawfulls of fur to climb up Sophie's back. "I need a little help."

Shishou plucked Yuki up in one hand, lowering Sophie back to the ground by her scruff with the other.

"Yuki?" he asked his student, incredulous. Yuki nodded and flattened his ears.

"You're not looking so good, kid," the martial arts instructor murmured. "What happened?"

"Shishou, it's Kyo," Yuki explained. "He's hurt. Sophie can show you where he is." Now that he was in Kazuma's warm, safe dojo Yuki was feeling the strains of the day wearing on him. He swayed and fell onto his backside in Kazuma's palm.

In the resulting hullabaloo, Yuki was practically tossed onto a warm, fluffy towel as man and cat raced from the building. He could keep his eyes no longer, and he slept.

…

Hatori Sohma was frankly too used to nonsense to be surprised by anything anymore.

So looking at the still animal forms of his two younger cousins, he could feel the beginnings of a migraine pulsing behind his eyes.

"Well," he said, kneeling by Kyo and gingerly lifting a paw to examine the cat's belly. After a moment, he reached into his pocket to grab his glasses, slipping them over the bridge of his nose. "Any idea what happened?"

"Damned if I know," Kazuma replied. He undid his long ponytail and squeezed out the rainwater that had collected there into the bathroom sink. "I came home to find Sophie in a panic with Yuki on her back."

"Sophie?" Hatori asked, and the older man pointed to the cat, who was currently attempting to groom the dried mud from her fur. Hatori raised an eyebrow at the ribbon around her neck; the pendant dangling from the end was an expensive-looking silver S.

"I wasn't aware you had a pet," he remarked casually, setting his back down and rifling through its contents. He removed a small electric razor and a clean cloth, which he handed to Kazuma. "Warm water, please."

"It gets a bit lonely in this dojo when all my workers go home," Kazuma admitted, pulling on the faucet and waiting for the water pouring out to emit steam before soaking the cloth. "Cats like to hang around outside; I think they like it because Kyo's here so often. I guess I adopted a stray. Isn't she pretty?"

That, Hatori thought, was a matter of opinion. Sophie was an odd-looking combination of feral ferocity and overfed house pet, but she definitely looked cared for. It seemed his older relative wasn't sparing any expense for her sake.

"She's lovely," he replied politely, thinking that perhaps without Kyo to parent, Kazuma was feeling slightly at a loss and looking for affection in a pet. "So," he prompted, getting back on track. He took the damp cloth and ran it up and down Kyo's cut, cleaning away dried blood to get a better look at it. It was deep, but not deep enough, it seemed, to touch any organs. He poured some sterile alcohol on the other side of the cloth and pressed it, hard, to the cut with the length of his hand.

Kyo's orange eyes flew open and he let out a terrible yowl that sounded like a scream. His claws shut out and every hair on his body stood on end. Sophie, too, stiffened, throwing herself at Hatori with a fearsome snarl.

Kazuma caught his pet by the scruff before her claws managed to rake across the doctor's face, and he tossed her outside, snapping the bathroom door closed before she threw her body against the door with a loud thud.

"Stop it, Sophie!" he yelled at his cat through the door. "You're only hurting yourself."

She smashed herself into the door again, and then out a sad little murmur, thrusting her paw under the door and patting around on the wooden bathroom floor.

Hatori turned his attention back on Kyo, holding him down by the neck and continuing to press down firmly with the cleaning cloth as the cat writhed and cried out loudly.

"Kyo, it's me," the doctor said. "Just me. I'm disinfecting you; it's going to hurt so just calm down."

Kyo's eyes were glazed with fever and Hatori didn't know just how much his cousin could comprehend at the moment, but he seemed to settle down after a moment. Hatori flicked on the razor and, with two neat and practiced stripes, shaved a bald patch on Kyo's stomach around either side of the cut.

"Hair getting into the wound will only worsen things," Hatori explained to the unasked question. He continued to dab at pink skin with the alcohol-cloth, and then pulled a tool from his bag that made Kazuma even more nervous.

The needle passed through the layer of skin to the left, and then up a little higher than on the right. It came back around to make a neat 'x' with sterile black thread before pulling forward to repeat the process. It took eleven 'x's to close up Kyo's gaping flesh. Sometime during the process, Kyo slipped back into unconsciousness.

Kazuma sat down heavily on the closed lid of his toilet, burying his face in his hands. He was looking very green. To distract him, Hatori asked, "So, Sophie was carrying Yuki on her back?"

"Yeah," the martial arts master managed to say, breathing heavily through his nose. "The only thing he told me was that Kyo was hurt before conking out." He nodded at the motionless rat resting in the bathtub on the pile of towels (the bathroom only had so much space). "Sophie lead me down the block. Kyo was under a rosebush surrounded by a whole army of cats. I just grabbed him and called you."

Hatori nodded. He had looked Yuki over; the rat didn't appear to be suffering from anything except exhaustion, which simplified his job somewhat. Only one patient to be looked after.

He pulled out a syringe and a small bottle containing an amber fluid. Kazuma's skin went from green to deathly white, and Hatori quickly hid the syringe behind his back. "Why don't you go call Shigure's house?" he said quickly. "Tell them what's going on; Tohru's probably worried."

He didn't want to have another unconscious patient to look after today.

Looking ten kinds of relieved, Kazuma hopped up from the toilet and made for the door. Standing outside, Sophie and three other cats stared up at him with slitted pupils. They all tried to jump past him into the bathroom and Kazuma was quick to snap the door closed.

"Sophie, quit calling your friends," he told his cat, irritated, walking quickly to the training room to snap the window closed. From the tall tree outside, even more shapes with pointed ears stared in at him. He grabbed two scruffs and hauled them down the stairs, pushing them out the door. "Go play!" he snapped. The third stray ran circles around his ankles, a young-looking male tortoiseshell, and Kazuma gave up after a few attempts at catching him.

With a groan, he made his way back upstairs to the telephone.

Hatori was relieved to hear no rattling or wheezing with his stethoscope to his cousin's chest. No pneumonia; only a nasty cold that should be carefully monitored and medicated to _avoid _pneumonia. All that was left was to wait for…

_Pop!_

The bathtub was suddenly overflowing with the long, pale limbs of one Yuki Sohma. Wrapping a towel around his cousin's waist, Hatori lifted the teenage boy up and, stepping carefully over the motionless cat, he made his way outside the bathroom. Sophie and another cat hustled inside.

"Don't lick his stitches," Hatori told them sharply, and continued carrying Yuki to Kazuma's bedroom.

It was clear where Kyo got his neatness; the bedroom was mostly bare, with plain walls and a neatly made twin bed. Hatori threw aside the thick blanket and lowered Yuki between the sheets, tucking them neatly under his chin. Yuki mumbled incoherently and threw a leg out from under the blankets. Hatori grabbed the boy's ankle and pushed it back under the warm sheets, tucking them under to keep his cousin covered. Then, looking furtively over his shoulder, he ran a hand through his cousin's soft gray hair, pushing it away from his face.

"I'm glad you're safe," he said quietly, before feeling foolish and leaving the room.


	5. Chapter 5

Kyo felt like his mouth was full of cotton and his head was being repeatedly beaten like a drum as he woke up. Drool was crusted unpleasantly around his mouth, with several hairs sticking to that drool. He felt the heaviness of his human body; at least that was a relief. The beads around his wrist rattled softly as he attempted to shift positions.

When he couldn't move more than an inch, restrained by something very warm, he slid open one orange eye.

Mere centimeters from his face was another, very beautiful, face. Nearly transparent porcelain skin covered bones so delicate they could have been forged with tiny hammers and chisels out of diamond by magical elves. Ridiculously long eyelashes cast shadows on slightly flushed cheeks, and a pink rosebud mouth was parted slightly in sleep. Familiar blue-gray hair fell messily over part of one closed eye.

Yuki's warm breath bathed Kyo's face as the boy stared, uncomprehendingly, at his cousin. His brain was working very, very slowly just now. It came to him that he and Yuki were sharing a tiny bed, with Yuki's arms wrapped tightly around his back and Kyo's foot between the other's ankles.

With the back of his hand, Kyo wiped the drool off his own face and touched his hair. Just as he feared; wild, matted bed-head. He probably looked a fright. _Why are we naked? _He thought. He felt as if he should be panicking just now, but something was there just at the base of his brain, cutting off all real emotion from rising to the surface. Instead he just felt vaguely amused by the situation.

He attempted to slip out of the bed, but the arms around his back tightened so that he fell with a thump of his knees against the wooden floor, his face pressed flat into Yuki's chest. He mumbled protests and hearty, uncontrollable laughter, his lips smashed against the rat's perfect sternum. Yuki woke with a start from the bizarre situation.

"Kyo?" he mumbled. "What the everliving _hell_…?"

"Hey, you damn rat," Kyo said with a big sloppy smile, his face looking as if he didn't have complete control over the muscles. As if he were a toddler, he gave a hop and landed on the bed, his knees on either side of Yuki's hips. Yuki stared up at his cousin with humongous eyes, shocked and baffled beyond belief.

"My- my _god_, Yuki!" Kyo exclaimed between fits of snickering laughter. "Your—your _face_! Your skin is so pale it's almost purple! Is it the blood vesh—the blood—the _veins _under your skin? You know, 'cuz you're so pale? So like the veins shine through. But maybe it's my eyes. _Whoa _my eyes. You're, you're _purple _Yuki!"

He bounced up and down excitedly, his hips grinding briefly into his cousin's. Both boys gasped in surprise from the sensation, and Kyo glanced down in confusion. His eyes found his own bare stomach. "Whoa whoa!" he cried out, surprised. "LOOK! Look at my tummy, Yuki! It's all… _bumpity._" He touched the stitches in his skin, ran his fingers across them. He then tried to poke at them with a fingernail. "Feel it, Yuki!"

He grabbed the other boy's hand and brought it to his own stomach, pressing the rat's palm to the stitches.

"Those are stitches, Kyo," Yuki explained, feeling Kyo's hard muscles under his delicate palm. "Don't mess with them; they're there for a reason."

"Well I _know _that, shtupid!" Kyo laughed, flopping down to the right side of Yuki, his back pressed to the wall. "It'sh not like I've not been hurt before! Beat up and scraped up and Shisey… _Shishou_ says that's just what little boys are made out of, lumps and bruises, lumps and bruises."

He ran his thumbs over Yuki's face, cupping the boy's feminine cheeks with his palms. "But maybe not you. Maybe you're not made of lumps and bruises. You're made of cobwebs and dew and silver moonlight. Pretty, pretty, pretty," he sighed, more than a little wistful.

Yuki gazed in dismay at his cousin, who's pupils were _enormous_, just the tiniest ring of fire around gaping black voids. He wondered dismally just what Kyo had been drugged with.

…

Shigure held carefully onto Tohru's elbow as they made their journey to Kazuma's dojo. She was carrying over her shoulder a heavy quilted bag, and the rising sun and grass absorbing the inches of water from the storm only made the mud stickier.

She stumbled once again when her rainboots sunk heavily into the expanse of clay-like mud, and Shigure clasped her by her underarms to haul her straight up, her boots making a terrible sucking noise as they were pulled free. He walked with her dangling in front of him for a few steps before they once again reached a sidewalk and it was safe to set her down.

"Thank you, Shigure-san," the short teenager told him with one of her award-winning smiles. He couldn't help but to smile back. Tohru was a rather plain, average-looking girl, especially compared to the otherworldly beauty of the Sohma's, but her smile was as intense and genuine as sunlight. It radiated off her face and made everything around her more special, somehow.

"You're a good kid," Shigure told her affectionately, resisting the urge to ruffle her hair as he would with the boys. She had it up in some sort of complicated-looking braid and doubted even she would appreciate him messing it up. Instead, he chucked her under the chin.

They made it the rest of the way to the dojo on sidewalks. Tohru seemed pleased by the rosebushes that lined the path.

"These are new," she remarked. "Look how pretty they are!" she touched the petals of a humongous yellow rose. "Don't they smell nice?"

But Shigure wasn't looking at the roses. His dark eyes had widened in shock at the sight ahead of him, and his mouth fell open.

"Wow, I've never seen a _blue _rose before…"

"Pfft."

"Shigure?" Tohru turned to look at the man, who had doubled over. His head tipped back and soon he was howling in uncontrollable laughter. She turned to look at what he saw and gaped in shock.

Every possible surface around and on the Sohma family's martial arts dojo was covered by hundreds and hundreds of cats.

Felines of every size, shape, and color imaginable perched on railings, on the roof, on the vegetation nearby. The sidewalk was swarming with kittens. Bushes shook and rattled, the long grass rocked against arched backs. They were all eerily quiet.

"Oh, my word," Tohru said quietly with shock. Then after a moment, "I can't tell if this is adorable or really, really scary."

"Oh, scary, definitely scary," Shigure replied, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes. "Looks like every stray and pet in the city is here."

"I suppose it's good that Hatsuharu's not the one who got hurt," Tohru remarked in awe. "I don't know what we'd do with so many cows."

This set Shigure off again; he looked very much as if he were about to pass out from laughter.

Tohru led the way through the clowder, stepping very carefully around tails and paws. A few sniffed the bag she carried with curiosity. Shigure followed closely behind, bracing a hand around Tohru's waist.

They'd made it a good ways up the long, rose-lined walk until Tohru's boot accidentally came down on a Longpoint's tail. Its head shot up and it let out an ear-splitting wail; startled, Tohru fell hard against the chest of her parental substitute. He automatically raised his arms to catch her; there was a flash of navy light and then the heavy panting and warm fur of a solid black German shepherd pressed into her arm.

There was a brief, tension-filled pause until all hell broke loose.

Yowls and screams, snarls and hisses filled the air from every side as if the cat apocalypse was upon them. Shigure, seizing the chance that would never come again, darted between furry bodies, snapping harmlessly near them, never close enough to bite. He barked with glee as he stirred them up. They ran in every direction in an impossible feline stampede; the noise rose to such a level that it could be heard from miles away. Tohru clamped her hands over her ears. Even as all this was going on Shigure's hysterical laughter could be heard.

As the chaos rose to a peak, Shigure stuffed his head under Tohru's arm, dragging her to her feet. "Go go go!" he barked, still laughing, running to the dojo's door. She grabbed the extra bunch of skin at his neck and held on tightly as they practically flew through the sea of furry bodies.

The door opened just an inch and large hands seized the girl and the dog, hauling them inside before slamming shut behind them. As the three fell forwards, Shigure, recognizing the situation, darted between Tohru and his friend; she ended up falling on the large dog instead of the doctor, saving him from a dangerous transformation.

Hatori, at the bottom of a heavy pile, let out a groan at the noisy mob just outside the door. "You _idiots_," he exclaimed, wondering just how he had been born into this family.

A long tongue dragged up the doctor's cheek. "Well hi, Hatori!" Shigure barked, wagging his tail. "Long time, no see."

Kazuma slipped into the room and offered a polite hand to the dazed Tohru. "Come, Miss Tohru," he said with a smile. "Let sleeping dogs lie. Phwoar, what a din." He was referring to the yowling and wailing just outside the door, as if the very denizens of hell were screaming their wrath. Sophie, just at his ankle, let out a haughty sniff as if she were above such nonsense.

Hatori let out another groan like a wounded water buffalo as Tohru's weight was pulled from his side.

"Hatori-san," she said, flustered. "Are you alright?"

Shigure stuffed his cold nose into the doctor's ear.

"Good Lord almighty!" Hatori yelped, swatting harshly at the nose as he leapt to his feet.

"_To-o-ohru!" _Shigure whined. "Ha'ri _hit _me!" He rolled over onto his back and kicked pathetic doggy paws in the air. With a loud pop, he was suddenly and gracelessly returned to his human form.

Hatori slapped two courteous hands over the eyes of Tohru and Kazuma. "Where are your clothes, you mangy mutt," he sighed, exasperated and with a steadily worsening headache.

Shigure gulped and peeked out the window at the chaos that reigned outside. With an evil smirk, Hatori seized him by the back of the neck and, flinging the door open, he tossed his friend into the whirling vortex of paws and teeth.

"Ha'ri, no!" the naked Shigure protested as the dragon slammed the door.

Tohru carried her quilted bag to Kazuma's kitchen and set it down on a counter-top. "Kazuma-san?" she asked politely. "Would it be alright if I used your kitchen?"

"Anything you want, Tohru-chan," he replied warmly, slipping an arm around her and giving her a brief hug. She grinned and hugged back.

Shigure, eyes full of terror, slipped quietly back into the room. His clothes were covered in a rainbow of various cat hairs and peppered with holes from many claws.

"I smell like Kyo," he griped.

"Serves you right," the doctor grumbled. He helped Tohru drag a large, dusty pot from a low cupboard.

"I didn't know I had that," Kazuma remarked, bemused. "The place came fully stocked... I guess I just haven't looked around."

He picked Sophie off the ground and held her under his chin, absently stroking her fur. She purred and nestled closer, loving the attention, but still took the time to shoot Shigure a dirty look.

"How long have Yuki and Kyo be sleeping, Hatori-san?" Tohru asked, adjusting the gas-lit stove and placing the metal pot on a burner. Kazuma had explained the full situation to them over the phone and, though she'd panicked at first, she felt much better once she'd assigned herself the task of fixing dinner where they could eat it.

"I'm not sure," he replied honestly. Ever helpful, he rifled through a cabinet and pulled out both a wooden spoon and a metal one, both of which he offered to the young girl. She took the wooden one and filled a large cup with water, pouring it into the pot. "I gave them dosages according to their sizes at the time. Yuki was in his human body when I tended to him, which I'm more familiar with."

He gave a nervous laugh. "I know it's part of my job but it's not every day I have to measure out correct dosages for a cat. He was still purring when I put him in with Yuki."

"Purring?" Shigure asked with a laugh. "What did you give him- salmon and milk?"

Sophie licked her lips.

"Um, no," Hatori shot his high school companion a withering glance. "But that particular serum I created myself- it's designed to boost the immune system, increase hydration, fight infection, and go easy on the way down. A real cold-zapper. It actually contains a high percentage of catnip."

There was a crash up above as a door slammed open, and Yuki's voice, muffled as though by a hand, called out, "would you knock it OFF?"

Kyo's laughter, even more loud and boisterous than Shigure's had been, filled the empty space.

Yuki cried, "whoa, wait, not so fast-"

and there was a series of loud thumps and crashes and Yuki's muffled cursing. "Whee!" Kyo shouted, sounding absolutely delighted, as the two rolled down the stairs.

The two very naked boys landed in a crumpled heap at the foot of the stairs, but Kyo quickly recovered. Leaping back on top of the boy he straddled him, pinning his arms above his head. "Caught you, you rat!" he sang out like a Broadway star, and proceeded to grab a mouthful of Yuki's hair.

Hatori was staring at the two boys like Victor Frankenstein must have stared at his monster.

"What have you done?" Kazuma whispered in quiet horror.

"And can you do it again?" Shigure asked gleefully.

"He's ok!" Kyo said, looking at Tohru, no doubt seeing the concern in her face. "Right, Yuki? I protected him." he demonstrated how he had cradled the rat's head on the tumble down the stairs. "Don't wanna get his pretty pretty princely brains all over the place!" he said these last words with great affection, pinching Yuki's cheeks. "Not after I worked so hard to save his life; I had to lick ALL over his chest."

The expression on Shigure's face was akin to that of a child being told that yes, he _could_ have Christmas every day of the year.

"Oh?" he said mildly, trying in vain to fight off his tremendous grin. "Do tell."

Hatori turned to Tohru. "How much," he started to ask, ignoring the dog as he pulled his cellphone out and hit the 'record' button. "Would you say Kyo weighs in his cat-form?"

"Hmm, I'd say about four kilograms…" she replied, attempting to block out Kyo's cheerful- and highly lewd- retelling of that afternoon's events.

Hatori very slowly did the math in his head. How much of the serum had he injected into the cat? If the square root of pi multiplied by Kyo's body mass...

"Oh, no," he whispered, realization dawning. "I've made a terrible mistake."


	6. Chapter 6

It took an eternity and a small miracle to get Kyo into a pair of pants. Yuki didn't envy Kazuma that task one bit, but as he was the boy's adopted father he fell naturally into such duties.

The cat was currently running around outside the dojo, playing with the cats that remained there after the afternoon's previous cat-apocalypse. When Yuki looked out the window he almost didn't see his cousin anymore, until he realized that a particularly large pile of felines were moving in an unnatural way, as if they were on top of a human boy. The shock of orange hair—instead of fur—confirmed the theory.

"Do you need any help in there, Miss Honda?" Yuki asked after he had finished dressing himself in some clothes Kazuma had brought him from his own wardrobe. Although the martial arts master was broader than the rat, they were of similar heights.

"No, thanks!" Tohru called. "Hatori's helping me!"

That sounded unlikely, so Yuki peeked his head into the kitchen to investigate. Surprisingly, Hatori was standing at the stove with his dark hair gathered into a small ponytail at the back of his head, holding a wooden spoon and scowling at the bubbling pot of water as if it had done something to personally offend him. Tohru, at the island in the center of the kitchen, chopped the vegetables she had peeled earlier that afternoon.

Sophie wandered by him, her back brushing against his leg, and he reached down to pat her. "Damn Rat is Damn _Boy _now," she commented. "And Kyo-cat is Kyo-boy, too."

"I told you to call me Yuki," he said, giving her tail a gentle tug. She swatted at his hand grumpily.

"Who are you talking to, Yuki?" Shigure asked, peeking over the stair rails.

"Sophie," Yuki responded, watching her long tail sway cockily as she left the room.

"Isn't this nice?" Kazuma asked, reaching in to scoop Sophie up in his arms. "It's been so long since I've had a house full of guests. It makes me really happy."

Yuki felt a pang of guilt at that. He had been skipping out on some of his private martial arts lessons lately, letting his busy school, student council, and garden-filled life take over. He wondered if Kazuma was lonely now that Kyo was living with Shigure, Tohru, and himself. He vowed to spend more time with the master.

"You know what _I _think is nice?" Shigure asked mischievously. "Modern technology."

"How so?" Hatori asked. He took the cutting board from Tohru and used the flat of a knife to push chopped vegetables into the boiling water.

"Well, it allows me to send full videos to every single person on the contact list of my cell phone," Shigure replied.

It took a moment for what the dog said to sink in. Yuki slowly turned towards him, rage crackling like electricity in his eyes. "You _didn't_…" he whispered hoarsely.

"Oh, look, I've got some replies already!" Shigure chirruped happily. "From Kagura: _What is my beloved Kyo doing on top of a naked guy?! _From Ayame: _I support my little brother no matter who he finds love with_. From Haru: _Tell Kyo I'm going to kick his ass from here to Christmas_. Oh dear, it seems the video turned him black… From Akito: _Stop sending me stupid things, Shigure_…"

Yuki very slowly walked up the steps until he reached the dog, an aura of fury surrounding his every footstep. Shigure looked up from his phone and gulped audibly. Very gently, Yuki took the phone out of his older cousin's hands and snapped it shut; the loud sound made the dog jump. Then Yuki placed it on the floor, and stomped on it, hard, with Kazuma's boot. It broke in half along the hinge, the screen shattering and turning black.

"_Yuki, how could you_!" Shigure whined, crocodile tears cascading down his cheeks. "Tohru, he's so _mean_!"

"What's that?" Tohru asked, climbing partially up the stairs to hear him better over the noise in the kitchen. "Oh, Shigure, what happened to your phone?"

Still crying, Shigure reached for her hands for comfort. It was easy for Yuki to use his foot to push him into her, their chests crashing together. Tohru stumbled against the banister, and a large black dog wriggled out of Shigure's already tattered clothes. "What was _that _for?" he whined.

"Sorry, Miss Honda; that was rude of me," Yuki said, helping the very confused girl stand upright. "But trust me; it was for the greater good." Grabbing Shigure's scruff, he dragged him the rest of the way downstairs and to the door, where a dozen cats still played with Kyo, batting at his hair, his bracelet, grooming his face.

"Hey, cat!" Yuki said. "Kagura and Haru are really mad at us and it's all the dog's fault."

Kyo looked up at this, fear and then anger in his eyes. He turned to the cats and said something Yuki couldn't hear. One by one, they turned their slitted eyes—yellow, and green, and orange, and one pair of blue—on the dog. The effect was quite eerie.

"Yikes!" Shigure barked. "Um, I'm going home, boys, tell Tohru I'm sorry I couldn't stay for dinner!"

He took off at a sprint, long legs bunching and propelling him forward with every stride. Fourteen cats chased after him, yowling and hissing furiously.

Kyo leaned heavily against Yuki's arm. The drugs seemed to be slowly wearing off, leaving him very sleepy. "I'll protect you from Haru if you protect me from Kagura," he mumbled, yawning.

"Sounds reasonable," Yuki replied.

"Thanks for, you know, saving my ass today."

"No problem. Thanks for saving me, too."

"Hey," Kyo laughed, punching his arm lightly. "What are pain-in-the-ass cousins for, if not a little rescuing every now and then?"

Yuki smiled and watched the dog and the cats disappear into the sunset. Behind them, the smell of simmering stew deliciously filled the dusk air.

"Don't get me wrong," Kyo said after a moment. "I'm still gonna beat you."

"Good luck with that, stupid cat."

"Damn rat."

~_Fin~_

**Hello, sweet readers of this silly little story! This is officially the last story I will be writing on this account. But I am still on this website, and I'm currently working on a larger, more serious Fruits Basket project. Check my profile for the link to my new (and HOPEFULLY improved!) account!**


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